In which, Adira Lancaster falls in love with her rival, Percy Jackson
OR
he falls in love with her first, unknowingly.
She only seemed to think about a rivalry. Nothing else. Zilch. Nada. Zip.
-disclaimer- I do not own the Percy Jackson Books, or an...
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He cleaved downward at Percy's head, but he wasn't there.
The water seemed to push him into the air and Percy catapulted over him, slashing as he came down. But Ares was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.
He grinned. "Not bad, not bad."
He slashed again and Percy was forced to jump onto dry land. He tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what he wanted. He outmaneuvered Percy, pressing so hard he had to put all his concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. He kept backing away from the surf. I couldn't find any openings to attack, since I was thinking about if I was in this battle in my head. His sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.
Get in close, I thought to myself. When you've got the shorter blade, get in close.
As if Percy was listening to the same thing I was hearing in my head, he stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that. He knocked Percy's blade out of his hands and kicked him in the chest. He went airborne—twenty, maybe thirty feet. He would've broken my back if he hadn't crashed into the soft sand of a dune.
"YEAH!" I shouted. "Kick his ass! Wooh!"
I turned around, hearing sirens. I watched the police cars neared us.
"Percy!" I yelled. "Cops!"
He obvioiusly couldn't look away from Ares for fear he'd slice Percy in half, but out of the corner of his eye, he must have seen the red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.
"There, officer!" somebody yelled. "See?"
A gruff cop's voice: "Looks like that kid on TV... what the heck..."
"That guy's armed," another cop said. "Call for backup."
Percy rolled to one side as Ares's blade slashed the sand.
Percy ran for his sword, scooped it up, and launched a swipe at Ares's face, only to find his blade deflected again.
Ares seemed to know exactly what he was going to do the moment before he did it.
Percy stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.
"Admit it, kid," Ares said. "You got no hope. I'm just toying with you."
My senses were working overtime. Though I wasn't in the fight, my ADHD was telling me everything I needed to know. Ares was tiring himself out, and I could surely see that. I could see where Ares was tensing. I could tell which way he would strike. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were starting to gather. Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. I heard the flap of leathery wings circling somewhere above.
